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With its vast natural resources, China has become a world leader in renewable energy – and UK companies like Carbon Resource Management and SgurrEnergy have played a vital role in building that leadership.
UK Trade & Investment
07 October 2010
LEADING THE RENEWABLES RACE

Leading the renewables race

With its vast natural resources, China has become a world leader in renewable energy – and UK companies like Carbon Resource Management and SgurrEnergy have played a vital role in building that leadership.

While China’s commitment to renewable energy projects has seen it secure global leadership in terms of the amount of investment, it continues to depend on UK companies for both technical expertise and commercial insight.

Though examples could be found in all sectors, it is in wind power sector, where China’s natural resources are immense, that UK businesses are particularly leading the way.

SgurrEnergy from Glasgow have been extensively involved in identifying sites and selecting turbine technology for two projects in vastly different locations: Inner Mongolia and the South East China coast.

Consultants Carbon Resource Management, meanwhile, have helped not only with project-managing construction but also in securing the first Clean Development Mechanism registration for any wind farm – at Huitengxile in Mongolia – and then the first for an offshore wind farm, near Shanghai..

Leading the renewables race

As China faces up to ever-growing demand for energy, the role of renewables is set to be pivotal. Drawing on extensive government support, small-scale sustainable energy systems are becoming an integral part of new construction projects, while larger sites are serving commercial needs. To help ensure the best return on the country’s investment in these large renewable energy products, more and more regions and companies are turning to UK expertise.

SgurrEnergy, based in Glasgow, is becoming a key player in the emerging Chinese wind power sector. The engineering consultancy, which worked on Europe’s largest wind farm, has provided technical advice to two major projects in the country – combining the skills of UK based technical experts with a dedicated team in the company’s Beijing office.

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UK low carbon industry

The first of these took place in the extreme landscape of Mongolia, where SgurrEnergy’s input has been vital to the design of robust turbines to withstand the extreme temperature conditions. The company helped developed Honiton Energy model the potential yield and then oversaw construction and testing on the first 50MW site. Honiton plans to install up to 4000 MW in the region over the next 14 years, and SgurrEnergy will remain an integral part of the team.

Similar skills are proving essential to an off-shore development on China’s south-eastern coast. SgurrEnergy, working in partnership with the National Climate Center of the China Meteorological Administration, has helped conduct a full mapping exercise of the offshore wind resource from Fujian to Shandong province. This has been followed by assessment of potential locations and a full feasibility study for a 100MW offshore site in Jiangsu province.

Importantly, the expertise SgurrEnergy brings is being shared with Chinese project teams, through training and guidance. This reflects the wider goals of the EU China Energy and Environment Programme (EEP) - an important cooperation project in the field of energy and environment between the European Union (EU) and China, which is funding the feasibility study as part of its aim to scale up offshore wind energy development in China.

Another consultancy, Carbon Resource Management, is providing a similar set of services to the Zhangbei Mijiagou Windfarm Project. Located in Hebei province, the Zhangbei project is expected to supply about 105.8GWh electricity to the grid each year. It involves the construction of 33 high-powered turbines, and Carbon Resource Management will assist in the project management and – importantly – ensuring the project’s financial viability.

It was those skills in particular that the company applied when helping gain the world’s first Clean Development Mechanism registration for any wind farm at Huitengxile in Mongolia, and then the first for an offshore wind farm, near Shanghai. The Certified Emission Reductions from Huitengxile project were then sold to the Dutch government, and the CRM team has subsequently gone on to prepare the CDM documentation for over 40 other wind farms.

This combination of technical expertise and commercial insight will continue to prove vital as the renewable sector grows.